(MCU) Forged Reality: Chapter 8 - I'm sorry

Chapter 8 - I'm sorry

Summary: Old wounds resurface and unexpected conversations begin—some more surprising than others.

Tony kept watching the sky until Thor disappeared from view. He sighed and said casually, "And there he goes."

Clint chuckled, "I don't envy you, Tony, you know it."

Tony looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" he asked, confused as to where that comment came from.

Clint shrugged with a smug smirk. "I know a couple of ladies that are going to want a chat with you soon enough, and they aren't going to be happy."

Tony frowned; his confusion only grew. The only thing he found himself saying was, "What?"

Clint's smirk stayed in place as he said without any care, "Oh, Laura might have caught a couple of things over the phone, like you about to die. So you know how she gets."

Tony could feel a shiver running down his spine; he sure did, and he was considering leaving the country again only to avoid the conversation. Still, Tony shook it off and with a small trepidation asked, "You said two ladies."

Clint looked like he was holding something back as he said, "Oh, I'm pretty sure Thor is going to throw you under the bus with Jane."

Tony paled, and Clint couldn't hold the laughter back anymore.

Tony was about to retort when someone from behind him called out, "Mr. Stark."

He turned around to see Pietro Maximoff running, at ordinary speed rather than using his powers, toward him. The young man, if Tony had any right to call him that now that he himself looked about the same age as the Maximoff twins, was wearing a plain blue hoodie with regular jeans and sneakers. His white hair was cut in a way that balanced the length of the top with the one on the sides.

Tony raised an eyebrow and asked, "Something I can help you with, Mr. Maximoff?"

The boy stopped a few steps away from Tony, on the other side of the entrance frame. His face showed something that Tony had never seen there before. Pietro Maximoff was nervous.

Pietro gave Tony an awkward smile and said in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere, "Please call me Pietro."

Tony simply shrugged and returned it with, "Sure thing. Call me Tony."

Pietro seemed to be surprised that Tony returned the sentiment, but he soon shook it off and his face changed to something completely different that Tony couldn't place, especially not on the face of the usually laid-back Pietro Maximoff.

The white-haired man in front of him took a deep breath and spoke with the sincerest voice possible, "I... I want to thank you for saving my life, Tony."

Tony blinked in shock. He never expected it, especially not from one of the Maximoff twins. Still in shock, Tony tried to respond, "Um... Don't worry about it. All in the day's work, I guess."

Pietro shook his head and retorted, "You had no reason to save me. I helped Ultron like my sister, I wanted to kill you, and still you jumped in front of me and almost died because of it."

Tony, finally recomposing himself, shook his head with a small smile. "You don't need to worry about it. I would have done the same for everyone else."

Behind him, Clint gave a loud heavy sigh, drawing the attention of both Pietro and Tony before saying gravely, "Take him on that. Tony doesn't have an ounce of self-preservation when it comes to things like that."

Something Tony couldn't understand flashed across Pietro's face. The speedster frowned for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "There is something else I wanted to talk with you about."

Tony looked at him and waited for the other man to keep talking. After another heavy sigh, Pietro looked away and said carefully, "I was hoping you would give Wanda a chance."

Tony raised an eyebrow at him, not sure where it came from, but he supposed the man was worried about his sister. After all, she was quite hostile toward Tony specifically, and being on the same team as him doesn't sound like a safe combination. Tony would admit Natasha had a point when she said that.

Tony sighed a little, pushing his bitter feelings aside and trying to look at the good side. "You don't have to be worried about it; I'm off the team, so it's not like we will see each other often."

Pietro blinked in incomprehension; he tilted his head and said with total honesty, "I think I misunderstood. I thought you said you are not an Avenger anymore."

Tony gave him a bitter smile. "Yep. You got that right."

Pietro's jaw dropped, and he began to curse in his native language; the change was so sudden it took Friday a moment to start her translation. Even Tony was shocked by the kind of profanity the silver-haired man knew, that was until he said, "That blonde idiot has no idea what a good team looks like."

Huh, he managed to put together it was Steve's choice and not Tony's. Tony would admit he apparently underestimated the observational skills of the twins.

Tony patted the man's shoulder and said in a comforting tone that he knew was a lie, "Steve had his reasons, so it's okay."

Pietro raised both his eyebrows in surprise that Tony understood what he said, or perhaps the surprise was more about what Tony said.

Still, Pietro shook his head and said in his usual calm voice, "Dropping the whole Avengers thing. Wanda..." Pietro paused. He seemed to think of the right words to say before speaking. "She took what happened to our parents much harder than me. She was the kid sister after all, even if by just a few minutes, and she had a hard time processing what was going on."

Tony hated to admit how familiar it sounded. To not be able to comprehend the loss of your parents when both of them just die out of nowhere. He himself made so many mistakes because of a similar situation.

With a sigh, Tony reached the logical conclusion, "So she blamed me."

Pietro looked down before saying, "We were still teens, and we were looking for someone to blame. And once we got to Hydra, they were more than happy to encourage that... mistake."

Tony was surprised by his final word and asked, "Mistake?"

Pietro looked up, and Tony almost gasped when he saw the remorse filling his eyes. The speedster spoke with complete sincerity, "I... I'm so sorry, Tony. We never had any right to put everything on you, and everything we did because of that..."

Tony watched the man in front of him doing something Tony himself was quite familiar with—struggling with guilt.

Taking pity on the silver-haired man, Tony patted his shoulder and said with an easy-going smile, "All is forgiven. You owe me nothing, kid. You want to make amends for the thing with Ultron? Then be the best hero you can on the Avengers and save more lives than those you put at risk."

Pietro looked at Tony with shock before shaking it off. His usual demeanor showed up, as a smirk stretched on his lips, and he said lightly, "You know, you really shouldn't be calling me a kid when you look the same age as me."

Tony chuckled. "Got me there." Tony then turned around, planning to head toward his car, but before leaving, he threw one last comment over his shoulder, "Go be a hero, Quicksilver."

Before Tony was out of hearing range, he heard Pietro muttering, "Quicksilver, huh. I like it."

Clint smiled toward the figure behind them and said, "Well, at least one of them is growing up."

Tony hummed but didn't comment any further.

The three of them reached the end of the road leading to the building they just left and stopped there. Clint threw his hands behind his head and said, "Well, I'm borrowing a jet and flying home. See you two around, and Tony, expect an angry Laura calling soon."

"Yes, yes. Careful in the air, Legolas; it would be a shame if Laura will have another outlet to vent on," Tony said, hardly hiding the eagerness at the possibility. Clint chuckled and walked away.

Bruce sighed; he was looking at his phone for a while now. He looked at Tony and asked, "Any chance you can wait for another ten minutes? I have something I want to deal with before we're off."

Tony shrugged with a casual smile and replied, "Sure thing, Brucie-bear."

Bruce smiled and walked back into the building they had just left.

Tony shook his head in amusement while watching the car Friday was controlling pulling up the road and coming to a stop right in front of him.

Tony was reaching toward the handle of the door when a familiar shout came from behind him, "Stark!"

Tony felt himself stiffening; he turned carefully around to see Wanda Maximoff running toward him down the road. She was wearing her hero costume already, and she looked absolutely stunning in it.

Tony frowned as the thought entered his mind. He cursed his new and younger body. Apparently, his mind reverted somewhat as well, or at least enough that when it came to hormones and women, he did feel like he was twenty again. And there was no denying that whatever else she was, Wanda Maximoff was a beauty.

The woman stopped a few steps away from him, her face was an unreadable mask. So Tony took the initiative and said as calmly as he could, "Yes, Ms. Maximoff?"

The female Maximoff twin looked away, her hands combining in front of her with her fingers fiddling with each other. After a moment of silence, she sighed and turned to look back at Tony as she said calmly, "I wanted to apologize. About messing with your mind, about helping Ultron, and about blaming you for something you had no control over."

Tony could feel his eyes widening. He couldn't say he expected Pietro to apologize, but the speedster was always the more down-to-earth of the two, so Tony took that easily. For Wanda Maximoff to do so though, was a complete shock to the genius.

He never considered it to even be a possibility; he expected her to hate him until the day he died, or well, after his new makeover, whoever it is between them that would die first.

Still, whatever he thought, here she stood before him, doing just that. So, Tony composed himself and said naturally, "I accept your apology, Ms. Maximoff. We all make mistakes when faced with cruel reality."

The auburn-haired woman narrowed her green eyes at him and asked incredulously, "Just like that?! After I treated you like a monster, after I became a monster myself?!"

Tony could see something in her; he wasn't sure what it was, but it was something that resonated with him deeply. So while he kept the natural tone, he did add a soft edge to it when he said simply, "You didn't turn yourself into a monster."

The witch's hands fell to her sides as fists; her brow frowned, and she asked in a much quieter voice, "How can you say that?"

Tony couldn't help himself but give her a small sad smile when he replied, "Because I was in your shoes once before."

Her eyes widened in shock for a moment before she frowned again, suspicion written all over her face. Before Tony could even understand why he was doing it, he began to speak, "When I was 17, my parents died in a car crash. I still blame Howard for it. I never got to say goodbye, never got to show them the man I could have become when I grew out of my teenage rebellion stage. All I was left with were regrets. I tried to drown all those feelings with drinks, women, and whatever the hell else. I pushed everyone who cared about me away and let someone who wanted to use me for his own ends manipulate me and lead me down the wrong path."

Tony looked up toward the sky, allowing his mind to drift back in time. "I let myself become something I myself hated because of it. It was only after Afghanistan and thanks to a... friend of mine that I managed to finally pull my head out of my ass and change myself to be the man I hope my mom would be proud of."

Tony shook his head, trying to forget the memories that overwhelmed him. He looked back into those green eyes and said with the same small smile, "Like I said. When faced with the cruelty of this world, we all make mistakes. Now is your chance to atone for them and recreate your life into something your parents would be proud of. You see, you are not the real monster between the two of us; it's still me. After all, whether I like it or not, part of my legacy will always be as 'The Merchant of Death.'"

"No." Tony was surprised to hear her saying it so softly. Her eyes then narrowed again, and she spoke again, louder this time, "I don't know how to feel about you, Stark. I spent too much time despising you to be able to call you a friend just yet. But I know enough to know you are not a monster. You made mistakes, yes. You also always did the best you could to keep people safe and happy, even if you trusted the wrong people. So I can't say we are friends, but now I know you are no monster either."

Tony couldn't help but chuckle before replying with a genuine smile, "Thanks, it means a lot to hear you say it."

The woman nodded with a small smile of her own and said, "Yeah, same with me."

Before any more could be said, Bruce came back. He took one look at the both of them and without a word walked around the car to the passenger seat.

Tony turned toward the female Maximoff and said with his usual smile, "I guess I'll see you around, Ms. Maximoff."

She chuckled, making Tony raise an eyebrow. She shook her head and said, "I just realized that for so long I hoped to see you so I could kill you, and now I find myself just wanting to see you again to see what will change next time. So, I guess what I wanted to say is, yes, see you around, Mr. Stark."

Tony smirked back at her as he entered the driver's seat and began pulling away from the compound. As he took the final turn, he saw Wanda Maximoff standing in the same place and waving at him, and was that a blush on her face?